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Friends of Syria have 'secret plan'

Balancing act: US Secretary of State John Kerry is greeted by Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. Photo: AP

World powers supporting Syria's rebels have decided to take "secret steps" to change the balance on the battlefield after the United States and others called for increasing military aid to insurgents.

Yet even as they prepared to step up their own involvement in a war that has killed nearly 100,000 people, they demanded that Iran and Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah stop supporting President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

In their final communique, the ministers agreed to "provide urgently all the necessary materiel and equipment to the opposition on the ground, each country in its own way in order to enable them to counter brutal attacks by the regime and its allies and protect the Syrian people".

Speaking in Doha, top Qatari diplomat Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said the meeting of foreign ministers of the "Friends of Syria" had taken "secret decisions about practical measures to change the situation on the ground in Syria".

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Ministers from Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States attended the talks.

Washington and Doha called for increasing military aid to end what US Secretary of State John Kerry called an "imbalance" in Mr Assad's favour.

Mr Kerry said the United States remained committed to a peace plan that includes a conference in Geneva and a transitional government chosen both by Mr Assad and the opposition.

But he said the rebels need more support "for the purpose of being able to get to Geneva and to be able to address the imbalance on the ground".

To that end, he said, "the United States and other countries here . . . will increase the scope and scale of assistance to the political and military opposition".

Sheikh Hamad echoed Mr Kerry's remarks, calling for arms deliveries to the rebels to create a military balance that could help forge peace.

A peaceful end "cannot be reached unless a balance on the ground is achieved, in order to force the regime to sit down to talks", he told the ministers. "Getting arms and using them could be the only way to achieve peace."

On Thursday, the rebel Free Syrian Army said it was already receiving new types of arms that could change the course of the battle, but also said it needed anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons.

In their communique, the ministers agreed all military aid provided would be channelled through the FSA's Supreme Military Council.